Preface

I am delighted to introduce this much-awaited book on The City Palace Museum. It is the first of its kind from Udaipur and is the result of the participation and efforts of a host of professionals and academicians associated with our Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation.

At the outset, I wish to thank all of them for their endeavour to understand the history of Mewar through the tangible heritage enshrined in The City Palace Museum—its architecture, painting and sculpture—and sharing it with global and Indian audiences in the 21st century.

In this preamble my humble attempt is to write about the spirit and ethos of Mewar, what has been termed as our ‘intangible heritage’. It also carries a host of messages for new audiences who will be reading this book. I hope they will connect with the concept of custodianship as a form of governance and with ‘living heritage’ as a movement which is bridging the past with the future. Both these concepts have the power to meaningfully impact our worlds; and are keeping alive value systems that have been integral to our way of life, our Indian civilization, in fact.

Custodianship is a unique value system received in trust from Maharishi Harit Rashi by the founding father of our House of Mewar, Bappa Rawal, in 734 AD. We, as descendants, are proud to be upholding this cherished and time-tested principle of governance in every age.

Mahatma Gandhi in the early 20th century, during the freedom struggle, spoke about trusteeship in society. He wanted to inspire the wealthy and privileged to use their financial resources for the benefit of all people. In Mewar, the concept of trusteeship or custodianship, as distinct from ownership, had been internalized almost 1300 years earlier.

Custodians are caretakers, safe-keepers, or as some have said stewards; they are not owners. As a Custodian, it becomes my self-motivated and voluntary duty to preserve and pass on what I have received in trust to my successors. There is an enormous sense of responsibility towards the task, but there is little or no ‘ownership’.

Mewar’s rulers never thought of themselves as Kings but as Custodians or Diwans of Parameshwaraji Maharaj Shree Eklingnath ji, serving the people in His name. Like my forefathers, I continue to be first the Diwan of Shree Eklingnath ji and then the 76th Custodian of the House of Mewar.

Nothing has changed over the centuries; even though everything in our world has changed!

Custodian’s perspective From our perspective as Custodians, we see a panorama of historical events which impacted our lives in different ways; sometimes putting into jeopardy the very survival of the House of Mewar itself.

The Preface is our ‘inside-out’ perspective, giving readers glimpses of how Mewar has withstood the tests of time not just in the 20th century but also in every preceding century. Each era posed major challenges for the Maharanas of Mewar as Custodians and threatened their independence and sense of identity.

During the mighty empire of the Mughals, the Maratha invasions, the British Imperial Rule and in the Republic of India, there were innumerable occasions when Mewar’s resilience was tested. Mewar managed to survive, often against all odds, and succeeded to move ahead with their sense of pride and honour intact: We can witness the transition from the Kingdom of Mewar in the 8th and 9th centuries to the Princely State of Mewar in the 19th and 20th centuries and now the House of Mewar, the world’s oldest-serving dynasty.

As we read this book today, and turn its pages to marvel at the sights of The City Palace Museum, we need to pay our tribute to 23 generations of Maharanas of Mewar who have contributed to the development and sustainability of Udaipur since 1559, often in very hostile external environments. Without their abiding commitment, their achievements big and small, and the platforms they consciously built, we would not be able to experience and enjoy The City Palace Museum as we are doing so today. We may not realize it today but each generation of Maharanas was conscious of the need to preserve and conserve the heritage they had received in trust. The preservation and conservation were done in the best possible manner. Court and administrative records were also meticulously maintained and were preserved for posterity. Maharana Mewar Research Institute, to provide an example, is one such repository of invaluable records relating to Mewar and Udaipur over the last 300 years.

Being the 76th Custodian of the House of Mewar I feel humbled by the foresight and endeavours of my illustrious ancestors, many of whom were not formally educated, in the way we understand education today. But they demonstrated their innate wisdom, sensitivity towards history and gave priority to preservation and archiving of records in The City Palace.

Moreover, they remained steadfast to the value system which emphasized the five values of honour, self-reliance, independence, service to and respect for all humanity. This, in essence, is the overarching responsibility of discharging the Custodian’s duties. And I am happy to say it continues till date.

This book is our respectful dedication to the generations of Maharanas of Mewar to whom we pay our heartfelt tributes.

Repository of memories When I think of The City Palace Museum, I think of it as a ‘home, a place of residence’; never as a museum or as a unique cultural heritage site. It is first and foremost a repository of memories for me more than anything else: it is where I grew up, studied and played with friends.

The City Palace remains a familiar and much-loved place of residence for the family members of the House of Mewar and the extended clans. It witnessed marriages and births and festivities: the entire cycle of life events that were celebrated and cherished by all.

The City Palace was where my father, as the young Maharaj Kumar Bhagwat Singh, brought home his bride, Maharaj Kumari Sushila Kumari of Bikaner, in full regalia. My parents settled down in a refurbished area of the Zenana Mahal in 1940. I felt especially privileged and moved, in 2009–10, to dedicate their ‘apartment area’ as the Bhagwat Prakash Photo Gallery, showcasing the rare and archival photographs from our archives.

I can visualise even earlier times when my revered grandfather, His Highness Maharana Bhupal Singh, was the 74th Custodian, governing the Princely State of Mewar through the tumultuous 1940s, when few could have foreseen the traumatic events about to overtake India as a colony of the British Empire and, then, as a new republic in 1947.

The City Palace, till India’s Independence in 1947 was the seat of Mewar’s government, the hub of administration, a focal point for social and cultural activities which emanated from here and involved all communities and people of Udaipur and Mewar. It was an entire and complete world in itself, fuelled by its ancient spiritual and religious values, governed by its own protocols and humanitarian spirit which distinguished Mewar and Udaipur for centuries.

At the time of India’s Independence, the State of Mewar, relatively untouched by the traumas of Partition, became the first Princely State to integrate with the Union of India. It was a voluntary act reflecting the deep understanding of Mewar that a strong and unified India was more important than mere regional independence.

Maharana Bhupal Singh, the Custodian of Mewar in 1947, said on that historic occasion, “Today is a day of which I am extremely proud. India is independent. It brings to fulfilment our 1400-year struggle and the endeavour of my forefathers. It becomes my sacred duty to merge our cherished and sacred Flame of Freedom with that of free and independent Union of India.”

These words have not lost their meaning even today; they resonate with power and positive energy for me in the 21st century. Maharana Bhupal Singh’s austere lifestyle and places of residence in The City Palace can be seen by visitors to the Museum today. Defining Udaipur For the learned academicians, architects, historians and researchers who are ‘looking in from the outside’, The City Palace Museum is often seen as a series of palaces and courtyards—they calibrate evolution of architectural styles and make us aware of spaces both private and public. They study paintings and are able to deduce changes in artistic and design styles; the lives of painters and the equipment they used become important.

Their journey into Mewar’s rich heritage is fascinating and endless, if you ask me, as it keeps throwing up new challenges of how to assess the tangible heritage. It also points to the importance of understanding the intangible heritage, the ‘software’, the ethos which made possible the creation of Mewar’s built heritage and its magnificence in the arts.

There are two facets which I would like to draw the reader’s attention.

One is the ‘open-ness’ of Mewar’s cultural ethos, the innate ability to respect other cultures, traditions and religious practices and also to promote and protect them whenever required. This respect for others stems from both a sense of humility and a sense of confidence.

Mewar, through the ages, was a confluence of cultures where priests, poets, painters and pioneers in different fields would be given their due reward as they made their contribution to existing ideas and projects. This open-ness never resulted in Mewar losing or diluting its own heritage; rather it was the absorption of the new that embellished, nourished the existing culture.

The second facet is closely linked to the first; it is the ‘quest for excellence’.

Mewar’s Custodians may not have been larger-than-life personalities, like some of their peers, but they created a cultural environment where talent and creativity flourished, generation after generation. The result is there for us to witness in the expanse of Udaipur’s City Palace—be it Mardana and Zenana Mahals or Shiv Niwas Palace, Fateh Prakash Palace, Jagmandir Island Palace and the Jag Niwas Palace (now Lake Palace Hotel).

Though these palaces and island–palaces have been built in different eras, from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, across a span of almost 450 turbulent years, there is an authenticity and a degree of originality in these palaces which continues to amaze us till today. (There are also several engineering marvels embedded in these palaces but that is another story.)

Even a lay person can experience the architectural uniqueness of these palaces, the aesthetic continuity and integration into The City Palace as a whole. Each palace exemplifies a quest for excellence that has withstood the arduous tests of time and, in the process, has become iconic.

Excellence ensures a certain degree of timelessness and it clearly demonstrates Mewar’s commitment to this awe-inspiring ethic. This book is, in many ways, capturing the ‘quest for excellence’ in its pages.

Living Heritage Through The City Palace Museum, and under the aegis of our Foundation, our focus is on preserving the ‘living heritage’ of Mewar. Living heritage is a constantly evolving model of managing heritage, keeping it alive, dynamic and relevant to changing times. It covers both the intangible and tangible forms of heritage.

I firmly believe living heritage has the inherent dynamism to trigger development of modern facilities in ancient environments. This development leads to enrichment of local economies, enhancement of quality of life in communities, higher employment generation, stemming of the rural migration to urban areas and generating greater pride in traditional professions, crafts and culture. It injects dignity in heritage and enriches the societal fabric. Living heritage, thus, bestows a distinct identity to those who live by its values and principles and celebrate its authenticity every day.

Unfortunately, India has not been able to showcase its heritage to power tourism. We are still stuck in the paradigms of the past, where tourism is considered. While tourism globally has gone through a sea-change, in India we seem to follow the model of sermonizing and not sharing. Our focus on tourism is restricted to forts, palaces and temples. In India, we are blessed with the widest variety of opportunities to power tourism. The time has come to change our model, our mindset in our tourism promotion policies, if we want to become globally competitive in powering tourism and thereby improving the economy of our nation. There are innumerable examples of nations, who are dependent on, and thriving on, tourism despite having far limited opportunities and resources as compared to us.

At the same time, it is important to preserve the past. If we do not do so, then our legacies will be obliterated from the face of this earth and remain available only to scholars. It is, therefore, imperative that we continue to spread the awareness, particularly amongst the next generation, so that it is not just the modern with which they are comfortable but also the past of which they are an integral part.

We are not interested in evoking the feudal past in today’s time and age of globalization. We are invoking an appreciation of our ‘living heritage’. If we do not subscribe to this, we would be losing our identity as Indians and become mere robotic clones of other cultures and civilizations. In my opinion no one in our country would wish that to happen.

May the blessings of Parameshwaraji Maharaj Shree Eklingnath ji, the Supreme Ruler of Mewar, continue to be showered on all those who tirelessly worked to create this book, the visitors to our Museum, the city of Udaipur and onto our entire world.

Arvind Singh Mewar Chairman and Managing Trustee Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation

The Palace Udaipur 313001 Rajasthan, India www.eternalmewar.in